Hope v The Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of the City of Gloucester
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 06 December 1855 |
| Date | 06 December 1855 |
| Court | High Court of Chancery |
English Reports Citation: 44 E.R. 252
BEFORE THE LORDS JUSTICES.
S. C. 1 Jur. N. S. 320; 25 L. J. Ch. 145; 2 Jur. N. S. 27.
[647] hope v. the mayor, aldermen and citizens of the city of gloucester. - -= _ Before the Lords Justices. Nov. 7, 8, Dec. 6, 1855. ' ' f ^ / y [S. C. 1 Jur. N. S. 320; 25 L. J. Ch. 145; 2 Jur. N. S. 27.] By an indenture dated in 1529, conveying lands to a municipal corporation for charitable purposes, the corporation covenanted, that when a term of ninety-nine years in a farm, part of the hereditaments granted, should expire, if any of the heirs of the body of a person named in the grant being of consanguinity and kindred of the grantor should come, claim and make lawful request to the mayor and burgesses for the time being to have a new grant and lease to him or her to be made within one year next after it should fortune the same farm to be void and come into the hands of the said mayor and burgesses, that then and as often as any such chance should fall, the said mayor and burgesses for the time being, upon such request to them so made, should make or cause to be made a new lease and grant of the said farm to such heir so making request, for thirty-one years and no more nor less, reserving to them and their successors twenty marks of annual rent during the said term. Held, that the covenant was invalid, as creating a perpetuity. This was the appeal of the Plaintiff William Hope from the dismissal of his bill by Vice-Chancellor Stuart. The Plaintiff by his bill alleged himself to be the heir of the body of Margaret Woodward, and also the personal representative of Humphrey Holman, who was the eldest son and heir of the body of Margaret at the time of her death; and he claimed to have a lease granted to him of a farm called Poddesmead, now producing an annual rent of between 400 and 500, for a term of thirty-one years, at a rent of 13, 6s. 8d., under a covenant contained in a deed dated the llth of January 1529 ; and he asked also for relief consequent on his title to the lease. The title was deduced in the following manner:-On the 18th May 1528, John Cooke, one of the aldermen of the then town of Gloucester, being possessed of considerable personal estate, duly made his last will and testament in writing in the Latin tongue, whereby he declared that his wife Joan, with such goods, money, household and plate as he had left to her disposition, [648] should, in as short and speedful time as she conveniently might after his decease, purchase manors, lands and tenements, annuities or other hereditaments in fee-simple to the clear yearly value of 20 above all charges, and of the same lands and tenements, annuities or other hereditaments so bought and purchased in short time thereafter should enfeoff or make an estate thereof to certain persons and their heirs to such charitable purposes as therein mentioned: the residue of all his goods, his debts first paid, he charged his wife, whom he made sole executrix, to dispose of for the wealth of his soul, and was at her discretion; and if she thereafter took a husband, the testator charged her to dispose the one-half part of such goods as he left to her disposition, after his debts and legacies paid, for the wealth of his soul as therein mentioned. 7DEO. M, 40,649. HOPE .1'. CORPORATION OF GLOUCESTER 253 King Henry VIII., by his letters patent under the Great Seal, dated the 6th of September 1539, in consideration of 266, 6s. 8d. paid into the Treasury by Joan Cooke, granted unto the said Joan Cooke the site of the manor of Poddesmead, or the grange of Poddesmead, within the parish of Hempstead, in the county of the town of Gloucester, with the appurtenances, and various closes of pasture, meadow and arable land, containing in the whole 167i acres, and pasture for thirty-one oxen in the common field therein mentioned ; and all the tithes of the same premises come to the King's hands by the dissolution of the abbey of Lanthony, to hold the same unto the said Joan Cooke, her heirs and assigns for ever, to be held of the said King and his successors, by the service of the tenth part of a knight's fee and under the annual rent of 30s. By an indenture of lease, dated the 10th of November 1539, and made between the said Joan Cooke of the one [649] part, and John Partridge of Poddesmead aforesaid, gentleman, and Ellen his wife, John, Arthur and Ewett, children of the said Joan, Margaret Woodward, Ann Woodward, Margery Woodward and Elizabeth Woodward, daughters of the said Ellen, of the other part, the said Joan Cooke demised the said site of the manor of Poddesmead, and all the said lands, common for thirty-one oxen, tithes and hereditaments which she had lately purchased of the King, unto the said John and Ellen from Michaelmas then last, for the term of ninety-nine years then next ensuing, with a declaration that, upon the death of the said John Partridge and Ellen his wife, the demised premises should come successively to the said John, Arthur and Ewett Cooke, Margaret Woodward, Ann Woodward, Margery Woodward and Elizabeth Woodward, one after another, if they should be then living, yielding yearly unto the said Joan Cooke, her heirs and assigns, 13, 6s. 8d. of lawful money, at Lady Day and Michaelmas, by equal portions, and subject to the above-mentioned rent of 30s. payable to the King and his successors, and to a power of re-entry if the said rents should be unpaid for one month after they become due, and no distress found, and subject also to the performance of the covenants therein contained. By an indenture dated the llth January, in the 31st Henry VIII., 1539, made between the said Joan Cooke of the first part, the Mayor and Burgesses of the Town of Gloucester of the second part, and the Bailiffs and Citizens of the City of Worcester of the third part, after referring to the will of the said Joan Cooke and certain letters patent...
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